Pebruary, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAM 
95 
GONE TO THE DOGS! 
SOME PHASES OF THE OPEN QUESTION AS TO THE 
SUPERIORITY OF CONFORMATION OR TEMPERAMENT 
By JAY RIPLEY 
^ r HAT is there to type or confor- 
mation?” I often ask myself. 
Conformation of the right kind 
I is most desirable, but I have never seen 
it assure bird sense, nose and other re- 
I quirements that go to make a perfect 
I shooting dog. Sometimes a beautiful dog 
; will appeal despite its shortcomings in 
the field, but in my eyes all homeliness 
, vanishes when the dog crimps on point. 
No dog was ever ugly on point! They 
may assume any pose, but when they 
have the birds to a certainty, they attain 
the loftiest standard of beauty. 
Families are noted for their ideal con- 
formation, though not one of them wins 
in tl.e field, and families that have but 
little in the way of looks make good in 
competition. All field dogs of great 
range and steam are built to perform the 
work. They may be sheep-headed and 
snipy-faced but they are created or con- 
strucud for that. 
As much of a part as conformation 
plays we have another thing to contend 
with in the selection of dogs, and that 
is^ temperament. I am of the opinion 
that in the early days of the creature’s 
existence man plays a huge part in de- 
veloping it. Were it not so, it would be 
inconceivable how some individuals have 
such rank-dispostioned dogs. A great 
dog will assert himself despite a cull 
master; but it has amused me to see how 
dogs become as fixed in certain habits, 
and to a. degree absorb them from their 
owners. 
Some dogs like 'to be cuddled perpetu- 
ally; and I am positive most sensible 
dogs like petting when at rest. But try 
to pet the real classy dog in the field by 
stopping him when he has already 
warmed to work, and you instantly ob- 
serve that he thinks it wrong just then, 
and like Maupassant’s Tallow Ball, it is 
not a suitable time. 
Every field dog is possessed of some 
peculiarity. With some it is a dislike 
for loud noise other than that emanating 
from a gun. There was a dog of my ac- 
quaintance that was deathly afraid of a 
cow, and would circle half a mile away 
to evade one, but in sight of other ani- 
mals he was brave. One persisted in 
bringing me every young pig and young 
sheep or goat that he could find. He was 
so gentle that none of them were hurt. 
M .YNY setters and pointers are dom- 
inated by family traits. Thus we 
see many natural retrievers, and 
their get have this talent. Another it is 
the faculty of marking birds so accu- 
rately that it appears almost uncannily 
accurate. I knew a big rangy pointer 
that was a wonder at marking birds. He 
never broke at shot, but often he ad- 
vanced over a rise after gun fire to see 
where the birds flew. Nine times out of 
ten he was correct in marking them; 
though I would have been willing to 
wager with anyone that the birds had 
dropped in a different part of the cover. 
Not every dog is possessed with the 
gift of telling when birds that fly off are 
hit. Nearly every dog that is a retriever 
will go on, if permitted, after a hard-hit 
bird that barely manages to scale the 
weed tops. But one dog I have in mind 
showed rare discernment in this. On 
every hunt he has suddenly broken shot 
and proceed after the birds to the brush, 
invariably returning with a quail in his 
mouth. I do not know how frequently 
I have watched a covey with careful 
scrutiny when he made the dashes. 
Sometimes I saw a feather fall, a leg 
drop, but as numerous, however, were the 
times when my eyes failed to discover any 
evidence of the bird being hit; yet this 
dog broke shot and brought a bird. Other- 
wise he was not particularly great on 
quails. He had been worked on chickens 
in the North and false pointed so badly, 
it became very annoying. 
Dog owners have ready excuses for the 
dog that false points. One man told me 
it was inherently a pointer trait, a week 
elapsed and another confided to me that 
it was a setter trait. Both were excel- 
lent judges of the act, as each claim sd 
it as an exhibition of over-keeness of 
nose. As for me I have seen but three 
dogs in twenty years’ shooting experi- 
ence that had never false pointed. 
Nothing tantalizes me as badly in quail 
shooting as a false pointing dog. A good 
looking dog in my mind can be soon 
transfigured into a dub by repeatedly 
performing this act. The one-dog man is 
for the most part to blame. Even though 
his young dog is not born with a defective 
nose, it becomes so by route of his offi- 
ces. The city lot is a fertile ground for 
developing false pointing, by stopping 
the dog on sparrows, pigeons, anything 
that has wings. My personal belief is no 
dog should ever be made to stop on any- 
thing but a game bird, and then only 
after the animal has attained age. The 
precocious youngster that points steadily 
at four months and afterward, is event- 
ually turned into a slow pottering fellow 
without the vim and snap essential to 
a high class performer. If he is not suf- 
ficient inborn hellishness to chase a quail 
at a merry clip for once before he is a 
year old, he really needs attention. 
The dog owner I have in mind was the 
one-dog man. On visiting him in the 
city, I was regaled with prodigious tales 
of his dog’s stanchness. Every Sunday 
he had put him down in the sunurns and 
had given him runs. Perhaps certain 
days he found a quail, and at other times 
none. My, how stanch he was! Was he 
coming shooting with me? Why cer- 
tainly! But he confessed that he de- 
tested to hurt my feelings; it would, 
however, be a good idea to chain up my 
dogs while he was there. Living in the 
country, though my self hunting rowdys 
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